Month: August 2011

While one soccer team on one side of the border is enjoying nothing but success, another on the other side appears to be living a period of nothing but failure. So different have been the start of the 2011 seasons for the UTEP Miners and CF Indios.

UTEP has started has its season with a 3 game winning streak while CF Indios has lost its last 3 games.

UTEP Head Coach, Kevin Cross, appears to have a solid handle on his team. He knows the style of play that he wants his team to play and appears to be well on way to achieving it. The adjustments that he has made have yielded him positive results. Not only that, but despite the final outcomes of games, the Miners are practicing an attractive style of soccer.

On the other hand, CF Indios Head Coach, Cesar Vega Perrone appears that he can’t find his way out of a tent with a flashlight. Lost isn’t even the word to describe his actions. The Indios lack an identifiable soccer system on the field of play. Perrone has elected to go with various formations, and started 24 of the 28 players on the roster in the first 5 games of the season.

How in the hell can you have any continuity when that is the case???

Up next for the Miners they will their first road tests of the season at Stephen F. Austin on Friday and against Texas State on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how the Miners handle the road trip to central Texas. Best of luck ladies.

The Indios get a break this weekend and will have an exhibition game against first division Toluca at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium due to the FIFA Match Dates that will take place on Friday and Sunday.

Despite that there is still plenty of work pending for the Tribe. They need to improve against Toluca, despite it only being an exhibition. After all, the seat while it may not be hot, its definitely getting warm for Perrone.

CF Inidos will look to break their 2-game losing streak on the road tonight in the state of Tamaulipas against Correcaminos. The game will begin at 7:30pm local time.

Head Coach for the Tribe, Cesar Vega Perrone, will once again try another combination of 11 starters to face Correcaminos and obtain a badly needed 3 points. Thus far this season only 4 players have started all 4 games leading many of Perrone’s critics to wonder if he knows what he is doing or attempting to do with this team.

With as many players as he has played, the one player that Perrone has consistently left out of the starting lineup or as a possible substitution is Juan Agusto Gomez. “Che” Gomez is the attacking midfielder for the Indios that gives them that creative spark and creates scoring opportunities for the forwards.

Apparently Perrone doesn’t see it that way and as a result Gomez has only played in one game this season against Leon for 20-25 minutes. In that game Gomez gave that team the spark it needed, falling just short of tying the game. Those 20-25 minutes are the best minutes that the Indios have played all season long.

Instead Perrone options to play players like a Pablo Metlich who has not stood out in any way, shape, or form and comes off the pitch methodically in the second half to be substituted usually when the Indios fall behind. But he has started ALL four games.

If Indios has a negative result tonight, Perrone will most definitely be in the hot seat or he should be. Let just hope that this naïve front office is smart enough to acknowledge it. Until next time, VAMOS Indios!!!

Tonight’s game will be broadcast on RadioNET 1490 AM starting at 7:30PM.

-Let us start with the most arrogant personality in soccer and probably all of sports worldwide. Real Madrid Head Coach, Jose Mourinho put an end to the recent rumors that he is going to resign from the team. He also apologized for his actions last Wednesday in the 2nd leg of the Supercopa against FC Barcelona. Mourinho deliberately stuck his finger in the eye one of the Barcelona coaches when a fight broke out between both teams in the closing minutes of the match.

-On Monday the Mexican Soccer Federation held an “emergency meeting” with the owners/representatives of all the clubs in all divisions to discuss the actions that will be taken after the incident in Torreon, Coahuila. The incident occurred during the Santos-Morelia game in which a gunfight broke out outside the stadium. I doubt if that meeting will yield any significant changes. No formal course of action was announced in the post-meeting press conference. It was just a whole lot of rhetoric.

-Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez saw 10 minutes of action in Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over Tottenham on Monday night. Hernandez has been out several weeks as a result of the concussion he suffered during a practice during the team’s U.S. Tour earlier this summer.

-On Tuesday the last acquisition for CF Indios arrived to the Borderland. Gabriel Enriquez Gomez, Captain of the Panama National Team, is a midfielder and it is safe to say that he comes at the recommendation of Indios forward Blas Perez. The Indios have lost their last two games and have only 4 points out of a possible 16 that have been disputed so far this season.

-UTEP Miners Head Coach Kevin Cross spoke with me on Monday afternoon and he said that all of the Miners find themselves in good health after their victorious season opener against NMSU. There is no major injuries to speak of, and everyone was ready to begin this week’s practice in preparation for the Second Annual Border Bash that will take place at Univeristy Field at UTEP this coming Friday and Sunday.

The incident that has now circled the world with regards to the what happened in yesterday’s soccer game in Torreon, Coahuila will now hopefully trigger a new cause of action in the country of Mexico against the Drug War.

The horrifying events that took place outside the Territorio Santos Modelo stadium yesterday when a gunfight broke out at road checkpoint outside the stadium which lead to panic inside of it will hopefully be enough of a national embarrassment for the president and his administration to go to new extremes to reduce the violence in Mexico.

This most recent incident has now affected what was thought to be one of the few last safe havens from the violence in Mexico, soccer stadiums. Now more than ever people will be screaming for action to be taken in the highest levels of the Mexican government.

The national sport of soccer is one of the few things that people have to forget about the violent situation that Mexico is going through, at least for a couple of hours each week. Some people will spend a considerable amount of their weekly income to make it out and support their club as for some that is the only thing they have to look forward two every two weeks when the local team plays at home.

You take that away or endanger that, you are taking away a big part of some people’s livelihood.

Thankfully no one was hurt inside the stadium yesterday evening. It was a cheap lesson taught to a government that will pay a very high price if it doesn’t get off its ass and do something about it.

The UTEP Miners got their 2011 season off to the right start with a win over rival NMSU by a score of 2-0. It was a victory that went to the most deserving team on the field last night in from of a record crowd of 1,705 people. The key to the match in my opinion were the halftime adjustment by UTEP Head Coach Kevin Cross.

UTEP dominated the game from the opening whistle till about the 20 minute mark. From there NMSU began to grow on the field of play and dominate. UTEP had a hard time maintaining possession of the ball. NMSU did a very good job in blocking the exit for UTEP in order for UTEP to get the ball into the offensive one-third of the field.

A very poised Cross looked on from the sidelines throughout the first half as the Miners were not playing their style of soccer.

In the second half UTEP was a different team. They quickly moved the ball up the lines and got the ball into the attacking zone. The fullbacks did an excellent job in moving up the flank to get the ball into the attacking zone but were also very good about dropping back to defend. They never found themselves out of position the few times that NMSU generated counter attacks in the second half of the game.

Jade Babcock came off the bench a couple of times during the game to give the UTEP Miners that spark on the right side of the field.

All of this was part of Coach Cross’s plan that he put into effect at the half.

“We had space on the flanks further up the field, so we tried to tell them to play longer. We wanted to attack out of the back more. We wanted to get our flank players involved more and for them to be more aggressive.”

This is where Babcock came into to play. She was involved both times that UTEP got direct kicks called in their favor, by moving up the ball up the right flank and centering the ball.

The fact that the Miners got two opportunities at set pieces late in the game, which led to both gols, were a direct result of the Miners dominating in the second half. That domination I feel wore out NMSU and allowed the Miners to get their first victory of the season.

Soccer just keeps on going in the Borderland. Tonight UTEP Women’s Soccer kicks off its season in a home game against NMSU. Yes, the battle of I-10 will take to the pitch, and all systems are a go for the UTEP women. The game will be at 7:00pm at the University Soccer Field at UTEP.

Head coach for UTEP, Kevin Cross, couldn’t be more excited to get this season started. Talking with him yesterday prior to the final practice before their home opener tonight Coach Cross said, “We’ve felt very good about training camp. We have worked very hard to make the team tactically smart…”

The head coach for the UTEP Women is expecting for this season to be an attractive spectacle for the fans, as he looks for the ladies to carry out an offensive style of play that will hopefully lead to a lot of gols.

Observing yesterday’s practice, the Ladies looked relaxed and ready to go. They worked a little on set pieces and passing the ball in reduced areas. Coach Cross huddled with the team several times and discussed what appeared to be the strategy for tonight’s game.

There was a sense of high confidence with regards to this upcoming season that came across from the head coach. I liked that. He told me that this team will impose it style of play whether they are at home or on the road and force the opponent to adjust to the Lady Miners. To me that speaks volumes to the potential that this team has for the 2011 season.

Good soccer teams usually do this. They go out to the pitch and do what they know best and carry their Head Coach's system. I look for to the Ladies doing this throughout the season and perfect Cross’s style of play with each passing game.

CF Indios suffered their first loss of the Apertura 2011 season against Leon last night at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium by a score of 1-0. The gol was scored by former Indio, Nelson Sebastian Maz in the 50th minute of the game. The referee for the game, Erik Yair Miranda, played the role of the 12th man for the visiting team. He lead the worst officiating job that I have seen in a very long time at the stadium that lays on the bank of the Rio Grande.

The Tribe played with a man down since 36th minute of the game. Rene Ruvalcaba received a red card for a kick to Maz that apparently only the Miranda saw. From there the yellow cards kept coming but they were only one sided, against the Indios.

Despite being one man down for 2/3 of the game the Tribe still played a game that was at the level of Leon. Leon found it difficult to dominate at any point of the game even though they had one more man on the pitch. With this being said the Indios were closer to tying the game than Leon scoring a second gol.

The final analysis, Leon came to the Borderland looking for the tie. They got a ref for the game that helped them out to no end. They got lucky, found a gol along the way and left with the 3 points in their pocket.

Next up for the Indios they will travel to Aguascalientes to face Necaxa on Friday. Until next time, VAMOS Indios!!!

Tonight’s game between CF Indios and Leon will be more like Indios vs. Indios at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium. Five players that regularly start for Leon used to play with Indios up to about a year ago. These players include goalkeeper Alfonso Blanco, defender Edwin Hernandez, midfielders Edwin Santibanez and Marco Vidal, and forward Nelson Sebastian Maz.

All 5 of these players were part of the heart and soul that allowed Indios to be promoted to the Mexican first division approximately 4 years ago.

They are now the enemy although many fans in the stands will give them a warm welcome as they take to the field at 6:00pm tonight.

Both the Indios and Leon come into the third game of the season undefeated, both have 4 points on the season as a result of a tie and a win.

Tonight’s game will also most likely mark the home debut of the two biggest acquisitions for the Indios in the offseason, forward Blas Perez and defender Victor Bernardez. They both played last week, but that was on the road in Merida.

Fans have been anticipating seeing both of these two players in action for quite some time now. Perez spoke with media yesterday and stated that he would like to see for the Tribe to be proactive in looking for the victory and acquiring 3 more points on the season. Perez looks for Indios to have a majority of the possession of the ball for the 90 minutes of play and go from there. He feels that if this takes place, good things will happen.

We will see what the Indios are truly made of tonight as they face a team that is also an unquestionable contender for the title this season, along with the Tribe. The last time these two met was in the city of Leon, Guanajuato and the Tribe fell by a score of 1-0.

The general consensus of the team all week long during preparation for this tonight’s game is that the Indios don’t need to worry about Leon as much as the Leon needs to worry about the Indios. These kinds of comments all week long lead me to believe that Indios have the confidence to do important things over the course of the season.

The game will be broadcast on RadioNET 1490 AM starting a 6:00pm. Until next time, VAMOS Indios!!!

Let’s be honest, tonight’s game between the United States and Mexico is nothing but a money making venture for both soccer federations.

This game doesn’t mean a thing for either team. All that these two teams had to play for this year was decided back in June when Mexico won the Gold Cup that earned them a place in the 2013 Confederations Cup.

Yes, tonight both teams will have their best players with the exception of a few. This doesn’t mean that it will be a heated battle.

The best players that these two teams have to offer are about a week and a half from their club team seasons kicking off in Europe, where they earn their real money and improve their stock as professionals. I highly doubt that they will put all that on the line because of this “heated CONCACAF rivalry” in a game that means nothing.

Oh yeah, and then there is the new head coach factor for the U.S. Everyone wants to see how this team is going to look with Jurgen Klinsmann at the helm. Guess what people, tonight’s game is not going to be a barometer for that.

You want a better analysis for what the future of U.S. soccer holds, look to the games between Costa Rica and Belgium in September. That is where you will see the fine points of what Klinsmann’s soccer ideology is, with players that are not that well known now, but will be the future of U.S. Soccer.

Scores will not matter for U.S. Soccer for the next several matches, noticeable improvement on the pitch will.

Oh yeah as for the money making venture that is this game is tonight, it’s not going so well. Only 23,000 tickets have been sold. With tickets ranging from $38-$495, its no wonder people aren’t buying them up for a game that is insulting to soccer fans everywhere.